A Comparative Study Of Translations Of Conceptual Metaphors In The Poems Of Hong Lou Meng

Hong Lou Meng is one of the Chinese famous classical novels. Researcheson the translations of Hong Lou Meng have been hot in the academic field in China.In this great novel, the poems play a very important role and contribute a lot to thedevelopment of the stories. Since metaphor is the essential part of poetry, the authorof this thesis chooses metaphor as her main research subject. Metaphor is pervasive ineveryday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptualsystem, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical innature (Lakoff&Johnson,1980:4). Since metaphors exist pervasively in peoples’daily life, the research on metaphors can be considered as pretty significant. Thisthesis tries to analyze the translation of the metaphors in the poems under theguidance of conceptual metaphor theory, in the hope of getting some effectivetranslation methods through contrastive studies of the three translation editions: TheStory of the Stone (1973) done by David Hawkes and John Minford, A Dream of RedMansions (1994) done by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang and The Dream of the RedChamber (2003) by H. Bencraft Joly. The former two are famous translation versionsin the acdemic world and have often been chosen as research materials. Thetranslation done by H. Bencraft Joly has not received much attention and therefore isrelatively new in the acdemic world. Although this translation is considered as onecomplete translated version, it only covers the first56chapters of the original novel.Thus the author of this thesis chooses the common part of the three transltations—thefirst56chapters—as the research data.Through comparative study of the three translation versions, the author focusesher attention on the translation and translation strategies of metaphors in poems ofHong Lou Meng and proposes a tentative model to help with the research. Throughexamples and detailed explanations, the feasibility of the model is proved and thethesis finally comes to its conclusion about the translation strategies for metaphortranslation in poems of Hong Lou Meng and the different conditions of using thestrategies. Since cultural overlapping and gaps always exist in the communication between two languages, the conditions of applying the translation strategies mainlydepend on how the metaphor can be conveyed fully and vividly. The author hopes toget the concrete and effective translation methods by the study in this thesis and otherresearches in this field and can thus make some contribution to the metaphortranslation in poems of Hong Lou Meng and in other poems.